OVS Gets Hip In Its 20’s

OVS Gets Hip In Its 20’s
By Thomas Consolo

Like most twenty-somethings, the Ohio Valley Symphony is offering a combination of hip style and traditional flair for its next season.

The 2011-12 series marks the OVS’s 22nd season as southeast Ohio’s only professional orchestra. The five programs cover repertoire ranging from R&B to classical mainstays to holiday favorites. They also feature a lineup of world-class guest artists, including the world’s first electric harpist and a father-son team of trumpet virtuosos.

That variety is key both to the OVS’s mission and its two decades of success, said Lora Lynn Snow, the orchestra’s founder and executive director. “Great music comes in all kinds of packages,” she said, “and we try to show people all the things an orchestra can do. It’s a lot more than just symphonies.”

That will be clear enough to the audience from the first program, dubbed “Hip Harp” for soloist Deborah Henson-Conant. The Grammy-nominated performer, composer and songwriter has built a renegade image on her evocative singing voice and the 36-string, custom-built electric harness harp she plays. Her programs fuse theater, stories and virtuosic playing skill and cover genres from ballads to jazz to flamenco.

For Ray Fowler, the OVS music director, Henson-Conant was an obvious choice. “This is a person who will reach right into the heart and soul of the audience,” he said. “She’s just so natural on stage.”

It’s more than showmanship, he continued. “I was so impressed with how thoughtful she was about her choice of pieces,” Fowler said. “She wanted to choose just the right repertoire to reach our audience.”

Henson-Conant’s performance opens the OVS season on Oct. 8 in Point Pleasant Junior/Senior High School’s Wedge Auditorium. It’s the third year the orchestra has performed in Point Pleasant, including a concert to help dedicate the facility’s completion. “We can’t expect everyone to come to us,” Snow said, “so we’re happy to go to them to let them know about this organization.”

The season’s other four performances will be at the Ariel-Ann Carson Dater Performing Arts Centre. The downtown Gallipolis landmark has been reborn thanks to a dedicated citizen-based restoration effort sparked by Snow. It was renamed to honor a gift by Meigs County native Ann Carson Dater, who wanted to ensure that the hall be a permanent home for the orchestra.

The season’s other bookend shows a different kind of virtuosity in violinist Chin Kim. “He’ll reach the audience in a different way,” Fowler said, “and the story will be through the sounds.”

Kim will play Max Bruch’s first violin concerto on April 28, 2012, as part of a program called “The Romantics.” The contrast between the two artists “is the extreme of the season,” Fowler said. It shows just how different music can be, all while touching people deeply.

“The Romantics” also features one of the best-loved orchestral masterpieces of the 19th century, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4. It traces a hopeful journey against fate to a joyous finale.

November brings pianist Lori Sims back to the stage of the Ariel to perform the second concerto of Johannes Brahms. Sims is “one of the best-kept secrets of the piano world,” according to Fowler. “Her playing has such integrity and such heart. She’ll bring the audience through the piece.”

The Nov. 5 concert pairs the Brahms with the youthful Symphony No. 2 of Ludwig van Beethoven. For audiences who automatically equate Beethoven with forceful Romanticism, the second symphony is an eye opener full of wry humor and the kind of balance his teacher, Franz Joseph Haydn, would have approved.

OVS brings sounds of Dixie to Point Pleasant

It’ll be a hot time in the old town as the Ohio Valley Symphony kicks off its 23rd season with a night showcasing America’s home-grown music.

The orchestra welcomes the DUKES of Dixieland back to the Ohio Valley on Oct. 6 for an all-new program ranging from traditional jazz to a 21st-century mixture of pop, gospel, country and authentic New Orleans sounds. Ray Fowler, the orchestra’s Music Director, conducts the 8 p.m. performance in Point Pleasant Junior/Senior High School’s Wedge Auditorium.

The program’s sponsor is Ohio Valley Bancorp, a long-time OVS supporter.

It’s a return visit for the DUKES, the country’s oldest continuing Dixieland jazz band. They first joined southeast Ohio’s only professional orchestra in July for a hot night in Gallipolis City Park.

It won’t be 100 degrees at the concert this time, but the DUKES will bring plenty of their own heat. Bright and brassy or smooth and dark as cane syrup, the group brings a time-honored authenticity to all of the hits of Dixieland music.

Since 1975 in Chicago’s Grant Park, the DUKES have collaborated with great orchestras, including the Boston and Cincinnati Pops, with sizzling arrangements that play off the two traditions’ strengths. It’s a formula that has worked for players and audiences alike. The DUKES have sold out venues including the Hollywood Bowl, the Kennedy Center and the Smithsonian.

Audiences can expect to hear everything from rags to Gospel classics like “Just a Closer Walk with Thee” to more modern favorites, including Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World.” With a band from New Orleans, there will be some sounds of Mardi Gras in the air, too.

This marks the fifth year the OVS has performed in Point Pleasant, including a concert that helped dedicate the hall’s completion. The annual Point Pleasant concert is a chance for the orchestra to find new fans on the other side of the Ohio River. “We can’t expect everyone to come to us all the time,” said Lora Snow, the orchestra’s founder and executive director.

The OVS, based at the historic Ariel-Ann Carson Dater Performing Arts Centre in downtown Gallipolis, has built a reputation for offering its audiences a lineup of world-class guest artists performing all varieties of music, ranging from R&B to classical mainstays to holiday favorites. That variety is key both to the OVS’s mission and its more than two decades of success, said Snow.

“The important thing is that the music be good,” she said, “and good music comes in all kinds of packages. We show people that orchestras can be very versatile.”

As part of the Ohio Valley Symphony’s mission to bring live, professional, orchestral music to the region and to instill a love of music — especially in children, the public is encouraged to attend OVS rehearsals for free at 7–10 p.m. Friday, Oct. 5, and 1–4 p.m. Oct. 6 at Wedge Auditorium. Open rehearsals are a great way to grow familiar with symphonic music, and they offer a unique behind-the-scenes glimpse at the preparation of an orchestral performance.

Single tickets to the Ohio Valley Symphony’s “Dukes of Dixieland” cost $22, $20 (senior) and $10 (student). Subscriptions to all five 2012-13 OVS concerts, including the always popular Christmas concert, are available for $100, $90 (senior) and $50 (student). Family subscriptions for two adults and children are $275.

Single-ticket buyers who decide they want to lock in their seats will be able to buy pro-rated subscriptions for the four remaining OVS performances at the Oct. 6 concert.

Tickets and more information are available at the Ariel-Ann Carson Dater Performing Arts Centre box office, 428 Second Ave., Gallipolis; by phone, (740) 446-2787 (ARTS); and through the OVS Web site, www.ohiovalleysymphony.org.

Funding for the Ohio Valley Symphony is provided in part by the Ann Carson Dater Endowment. Further support is provided through the Ohio Arts Council, a state agency that funds and supports quality arts experiences to strengthen Ohio communities culturally, educationally and economically, with funding by the National Endowment for the Arts.

THE CHRISTMAS SHOW, 2012

Stores are decking their halls even earlier every year, but the holiday season doesn’t start in October – or even at Thanksgiving. It starts Dec. 1 with The Ohio Valley Symphony’s annual “Christmas Show.”

The program, now a southeast Ohio tradition, is at 8 p.m. in the Ariel-Ann Carson Dater Performing Arts Centre in downtown Gallipolis. Locally-based Holzer Health System is the long time sponsor of the evening’s festivities

OVS Music Director Ray Fowler has again assembled a holiday-sized spread of musical cheer for the concert. He and the orchestra will offer a menu of old favorites — both carols and winter holiday songs – and of some surprises that audience members will be adding to their list of favorites. Among the traditional carols will be arrangements including “Away in a Manger” and “What Child is This?”

Songs from America’s holiday traditions will include “Jingle Bells,” “Sleigh Ride” and “Winter Wonderland.” Look forward as well, to an American flavor, thanks to William Bergsma’s “Carol for Twelfth Night,” Lucas Richman’s “Reindeer Variations” – one for each of Santa’s four-legged helpers – and “A Quint of Carols” by Ohio native Don Waxman. Classical composers Gustav Holst and Sergei Prokofiev (another sleigh ride, this time in Russia) also will be represented.

As part of The Ohio Valley Symphony’s mission to bring live, professional, orchestral music to the region and to instill a love of music — especially in children – the public is encouraged to attend OVS rehearsals for free at 7-10 p.m. Friday, Nov. 30, and 1-4 p.m. Dec. 1 at the Ariel Theatre. Open rehearsals are a great way for young and old alike to grow familiar with symphonic music, and they offer a fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpse at the preparation of an orchestral performance.

Concert-goers have another unique opportunity to make a personal connection with the music, too. Thomas Consolo, OVS Assistant Conductor and program annotator, offers a free pre-concert chat in the third-floor Ariel Chamber Theatre, just upstairs from the concert site. The casual get-together will put a more personal face on the night’s music and answer questions about the program, the OVS or the orchestral experience in general. The talk begins at 7:15 p.m. Dec. 1.

Single tickets to “The Christmas Show” with The Ohio Valley Symphony cost $24, $22 (senior) and $12 (student). Tickets and more information are available at the Ariel-Ann Carson Dater Performing Arts Centre box office, 428 Second Ave., Gallipolis; by phone, (740) 446-2787 (ARTS); and through the OVS web site, www.ohiovalleysymphony.org.

Funding for The Ohio Valley Symphony is provided in part by the Ann Carson Dater Endowment. Further support is provided by the Ohio Arts Council, a state agency that funds and supports quality arts experiences to strengthen Ohio communities culturally, educationally and economically.

Ohio Valley Symphony THE AMAZING CELLO with Efe Baltacigil

Turkish cellist Efe Baltacigil was acclaimed by audiences and critics alike when he and pianist Emanuel Ax performed Beethoven’s Cello Sonata No.1 at a Philadelphia Orchestra concert with only 10 minutes of rehearsal.

The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote: “Baltacigil is a highly individualized solo artist. His gorgeous sound, strong personality, and expressive depth suggest an artist about to have a major career.” Mr. Baltacigil won the 2005 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, The Peter Jay Sharp Prize, and the Washington Performing Arts Society Prize.

Ohio Valley Symphony Evening of Seconds

November 5, 2011, 8:00 p.m.

by Thomas Consolo

The “frost is on the punkin'” outside, but the Ohio Valley Symphony will keep “a feller a-feelin’ at his best” with the warm glow of timeless music.

The orchestra, conducted by music director Ray Fowler, welcomes pianist Lori Sims at 8 p.m. Nov. 5 for “The Grand Piano,” a program of Beethoven
and Brahms. It’s the second concert of the 22nd OVS season and the first this year at the orchestra’s permanent home, the Ariel-Ann Carson Dater
Performing Arts Centre in downtown Gallipolis.

The program opens with one of Ludwig van Beethoven’s early symphonies, the second. For audiences who equate Beethoven with forceful Romanticism,
the Symphony No. 2 will be an eye opener: Written just after the turn of the 19th century, it’s full of wry humor, delicacy and the kind of Classical-era balance
that his teacher, Franz Joseph Haydn, would have approved. It’s also filled with enough quirks and surprises to make it clear it’s from the new kid on the block.

Sims joins the OVS after intermission for Johannes Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2. Brahms spent his early years feeling the weight of Beethoven’s legacy,
but, by the time he wrote the second piano concerto, he had shattered that jinx with two symphonies. With a fourth movement — unusual for that kind of
piece — the concerto is like a symphony for piano and orchestra.

It’s Brahms at the top of his game and his most relaxed. It’s a perfect piece for Sims, according to Fowler, who counts her as “one of the best-kept secrets
of the piano world.” Her playing, Fowler says, “has such integrity and such heart. She’ll carry the audience through the piece.”

Sims won over Ariel audiences in 2008 with a performance of Rachmaninoff’s passionate second piano concerto. She has performed in recital, with chamber
groups and as soloist with symphonies in the United States, Europe, and China. She was the gold medal winner at the 1998 Gina Bachauer International Piano
Competition — where she also won the prize for best performance of a work by Brahms. Her 2000 debut at New York’s Alice Tully Hall earned a rave review
in the New York Times. The Colorado native is a Yale graduate who now teaches as the John T. Bernhard Professor of Music at Western Michigan University.

As part of the Ohio Valley Symphony’s mission to bring live, professional, orchestral music to the region and to instill a love of music — especially in children —
the public is encouraged to attend OVS rehearsals for free at 7-10 p.m. Friday, Nov. 4, and 1-4 p.m. Nov. 5 at the Ariel Theatre. Open rehearsals are a great
way for young and old alike to grow familiar with symphonic music, and they offer a fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpse at the preparation of an orchestral
performance.

Concert-goers have another unique opportunity to make a personal connection with the music, too. Thomas Consolo, OVS assistant conductor and program
annotator, offers a pre-concert talk in the newly-restored Ariel Chamber Theater. The casual get-together will put a more personal face on the night’s music
and answer questions about the program, the OVS or the orchestral experience in general. The talk begins at 7:15 p.m. Nov. 5.

Single tickets to “The Grand Piano” with the Ohio Valley Symphony cost $22, $20 (senior) and $10 (student). Tickets and more information are available at
the Ariel-Ann Carson Dater Performing Arts Centre box office, 428 Second Ave., Gallipolis; by phone, (740) 446-2787 (ARTS); and through the
OVS Web site, www.ohiovalleysymphony.org.

Funding for the Ohio Valley Symphony is provided in part by the Ann Carson Dater Endowment. Further support is provided by the Ohio Arts Council, a
state agency that funds and supports quality arts experiences to strengthen Ohio communities culturally, educationally and economically.

Magical Mozart, Elena Urioste

Magical Mozart
Elena Urioste, violin

Elena Urioste has been hailed by critics and audiences alike for her lush tone, the nuance lyricism of her playing and her commanding stage presence. Her debut with the Chicago Symphony was praised by critics for her delicacy, poise and sensitivity. She debuted at Carnegie Hall in 2004 and has returned every year since. Elena performs on a Gagliano violin c. 1706.

Maestro for a Moment FUN-draiser 2019-20

The Ohio Valley Symphony’s annual Maestro for a Moment Fundraiser is one of the highlights of the season for both audience and orchestra! Each season three candidates vie for the opportunity to conduct the orchestra during the The Christmas Show! on December 7th, 2019, in a rousing rendition of Sleigh Ride! This year’s candidates are Randall Hawkins, M.D., representing Pleasant Valley Hospital; Jason Holdren, Gallia County Prosecutor; and Arthur Huntley, D.O., representing Holzer Health Systems.

Make your tax-deductible donation now!

Hip Harp, October 8, 2011

Arrangements featuring Deborah Henson-Conant, electric harp.

Grammy-nominated electric harpist Deborah Henson-Conant is a composer and songwriter whose performances range from blues to Latin jazz, Celtic to classical. Known for her renegade image and evocative singing voice, she has revolutionized the harp into a 36-string, custom-built, electric “harness harp.”